Tennessee willing to pay to attract a defensive coordinator

The next defensive coordinator at Tennessee could have a million reasons to take the job. That's because the Volunteers and new coach Derek Dooley are willing to shell out seven figures per season to lure someone to Knoxville, according to the Chattanooga Free Press.

"I hate to be so cold about it, but I look at this as a line-item, and you're trying to pay for experience and the coaches that they'd hire and all those kinds of things," Hamilton said. "The way I look at it is, 'OK, we're going to pay the head coach this, and what does the rest of that line-item look like for their assistant coaches?'"

Part of it may be by necessity with signing day fast approaching. Tennessee recently was turned down by Clemson's Kevin Steele. Also reportedly passing were South Carolina's Ellis Johnson and Alabama's Kirby Smart.

Tennessee's assistant football coaches last season made a combined $3,325,000. That was the highest of all public institutions in college football. You can see those salaries and others in the USA TODAY's college football salary database.

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Nicole Auerbach joined USA TODAY in the fall of 2011 to oversee online college
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